


You Could Use a Friend

by MelodyoftheVoid



Series: The More Things Change [3]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Good Parent Professor Membrane, He's trying I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21912190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodyoftheVoid/pseuds/MelodyoftheVoid
Summary: In which Dib makes a dealAlternate title: It's time to stop, Dib
Series: The More Things Change [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571875
Comments: 11
Kudos: 38





	1. Desperate Times

Suffice it to say Dib wasn’t having a good month. To be fair, most months for Dib wouldn’t be considered good by any normal metric but this one dug underneath his already low bar. It wasn’t enough apparently that Zim’s schemes now served only as personal slights against him, removing his sense of purpose. It wasn’t enough that his peers had all decided to collectively shun him because he saw the truth, they’d long ago grown tired of him and instead of ridicule all he had were their turned backs. No, his only lifeline, the Swollen eyeball cut him off for the third time and would only take him back if he provided ‘proof’ that didn’t involve Zim. It’s not his fault the universe broke every camera that got a clear picture. So, there he sat. Alone in his room with only the blue light of his laptop for company when he got a message. 

_AgentBard420: I heard about the ban on your account and I couldn’t help but offer you a tip I found a haunting in your area, seems strong and there’s a good deal of testimony. Just be careful; this ghost is rumored to be a deal maker with nasty results. Here’s all the info I could find, best of luck AgentMothman. :)_

This was perfect! Out of all the case files he’d studied this one had everything: eyewitness accounts, a solid motive, emf readings, the works. The lack of photos irked him, but he understood this could be his only chance. And who knew, maybe he could finally show his dad the proof that paranormal activity existed.

With a newfound vigor, Dib threw himself into researching this ghost, who it might be, how they died, but came up oddly empty. The news articles mentioned a drive-by shooting during an open house; however, all mentions of the victim only stated their age. No other identifying information, as if someone wanted that person to disappear forever.

He obsessed over this hunt for days, putting together the perfect ghost detecting devices, stocking up on salt, the works. He felt a bit guilty; he may be what some would describe as self-absorbed but even he could tell Gaz was beginning to wish he’d go back to talking about anything else. But this night meant everything, and nothing would deter him. 

Then the night finally arrived

In all of his excitement to find this spirit Dib had forgotten one important fact. That Friday night was family night. The moment Dib got home, he realized his mistake, as his father sat at the table chatting with Gaz. Of course, tonight of all nights had to be their designated bonding time; the world would never let him experience one good thing. Dib tried to make sure neither noticed him as he crept up into his room. He quickly gathered up his equipment and shoved what he could into his favorite briefcase the rest he hefted into his free arm. If everything went right, he could sneak out and no one would notice. 

“Now son, where are you running off to?”

They noticed. 

“Oh, hey dad,” Dib hoped he would be able to leave the house without a lecture this time, “I just wanted to go on a quick ghost hunt. I promise I’ll be back home soon. There’s this house nearby and my sources say that-“

“Son. Tonight is family night, I know you could run off on your silly little ‘hunts’ whenever you wanted before, but we need you here. It’s not family night if you’re missing.” 

Dib rolled his eyes. Even when appealing to keep him home his dad couldn’t help himself from insulting his passion. He retorted, “Listen dad, I get it. You want to spend time with your family for once. But this hunt means the world to me, if I can’t find some real evidence the Network could permanently ban me, and I’d have no one. So please just let me go.”

Dib’s exasperation mirrored itself in Membrane who’d had about enough of his son’s antics. “It might do you some good to get off of that silly website. Those ‘agents’ are nothing more than a bunch of conspiracy theorists with nothing better to do than fuel their own delusions. Why can’t you just study Real Science and make a difference in this world with me?” He set his hand on Dib’s shoulder. “I want to change the world with you, and I can’t do that if you won’t let me.”

Gaz did her best to stay quiet on the couch. She didn’t care as long as she got her promised pizza. 

Dib on the other hand had endured enough. A small part of him wanted to just stay there with his family, but that wasn’t the Dib Membrane way. Better to dig in your heels than to ever give up. “Come on dad why can’t you just support me? I put my heart and soul into this, I’ve saved the world countless times from threats it doesn’t even know exists! But you and everyone else ignore me, call me crazy, insane, a LOSER. I’ll prove all of it to you. I’LL SHOW EVERYONE!” With that Dib pulled away from his father’s grip and sprinted out the front door into the night. 

He sprinted down the street, doing his best to hold in the tears that pricked at the corners of his eyes. This was fine, he could do this on his own. He always had. 

After pausing to catch his breath, Dib finally made it to the house. It looked about what he expected, albeit a touch more modern. Rundown, with overgrown grass and weeds. The paint flaked off of the exterior and cracks spidered in the windows. According to the files, the building couldn’t be sold, but the city wouldn’t demolish it for some unknown reason. So, the house sat unoccupied for years, and now Dib was preparing to enter. He made short work of the door, the lock broke years ago and no one bothered to fix it, so he stepped into the entryway. 

The inside of the house wasn’t any better off than the exterior, no furniture save for a handful of assorted chairs left behind by squatters, more bare drywall than paint, drafts from every window, Dib wasn’t sure he wouldn’t get some sort of illness from just standing there. He brushed that unease aside and got to work setting up the top of the line ghost detection equipment he’d ‘borrowed’ his father’s credit card for. The spirit box, emf reader, spectrometer, even an infrared camera all spilled out of his paranormal briefcase as he fiddled with their settings. If the case files were to be trusted, the ghost was most active around 8, believed to be its time of death. Fridays also seemed to be its most active days, giving Dib the perfect window. 

And so, headphones on, Dib sat in the darkness of the house and waited. And waited. A half hour went by, an hour, nothing. No hint of movement on any of his devices. Absolute radio static. Dib panicked as he tried to adjust every setting he could. This had to work, the intel was perfect, the reports verified, why weren’t his devices getting any readings? 

“No, no no no please!” Dib frantically pounded at his keyboard, body shaking. “Please work, I need this! I can’t go back to being alone I can’t- “He choked on a sob as he curled into himself. He sat alone in the dark, empty house listening to the whistling of the wind through the cracks. 

“Hey kid, are you okay?”


	2. Desperate Measures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A ghost's perspective, a deal made.

_She hated existing in this house. Nothing ever happened, nothing ever changed, and she couldn’t do anything to leave. If madness from solitude existed, she succumbed years ago. She assumed years as it was hard to truly keep track of the passage of time when you couldn’t mark the walls or do anything at all. At least some of the people who came into the house were entertaining._

“Hey kid, are you okay?”

Dib startled from his curled-up position, knocking his glasses off of his face. Oh god, someone was here. Was it a squatter? A concerned neighbor? The police?! He flailed in place as he tried to regain some semblance of composure in front of this complete stranger. How long had they been there? And what was that clicking noise?

“Oh dear, sorry for startling you. But I heard your crying and I had to help, are you alright?”

Dib squinted at the purple haired figure in front of him. Trying to parse where that light was coming from. Did she have a car outside? That didn’t matter. As he fumbled around for his glasses he managed to stutter out, “Y-yeah, ‘mm fine.” He was not about to unload his entire backstory onto this woman. He was still recovering from the mortification of knowing she saw him have a breakdown in an abandoned house. 

“Are you sure about that? Most people don’t just wander into a condemned house on a whim.”

Dib considered telling her the truth, not like it would get him into less trouble for trespassing. “I was just… Curious. Lots of rumors about this place.” He could feel an oncoming headache and realized his glasses were still missing. “Hey, could you help me find-“

“Your glasses are to your left.” He saw the figure gesture to another shape on the floor. The clicking continued, growing louder. 

Dib placed his glasses back in their rightful place, blinking a few times just to adjust back to sight again. He looked for the source of that infernal noise before stopping in his tracks. The only electronics he had was his ghost detecting equipment. He looked at the emf reader that screamed back at him. With dawning horror, he turned to the woman still standing beside him, her appearance finally fully registering in his brain.

“You’re the ghost!”

_The few people who came to her house (what else could she call it) fell into two categories: developers and hunters. The developers were boring, they just wanted to renovate the property and took very little effort to get rid of. Despite how much she hated this house, she wanted no one else there. Then there were the hunters. Even they came in a couple of flavors. Some only came to test their courage; others came for fame. But then there were those who came in search of something else: a deal._

Dib gaped at the figure, a woman with wild purple hair and the iciest blue eyes he’d ever seen, translucent from the torso down. Previous angst forgotten momentarily. This was perfect! He had the ghost right in front of him, now all he had to do was record this and the Network would take him back for sure! Maybe they’d feature him for real this time!

The spectral apparition sighed, of course this kid knew about her, she’d suspected he fell into the hunter category the moment she caught sight of his coat. No self-respecting human could wear that coat without being some sort of oddball. That and the equipment she’d seen so many times before. She cleared her nonexistent throat. “Before you go and try anything, I’ve taken the liberty of disabling your camera. I do have some experience with this. Why do you think all that fancy equipment of yours didn’t pick me up until now?”

“Of course! That explains why for all of the sightings no pictures exist!” Dib’s monologue slowly devolved into mumbling as he pondered what category of ghost she fell into. Existential crisis momentarily forgotten as he swung his hands wildly in his pondering. 

“Kid, kid slow down. Your mood swings are giving me whiplash.” She sighed, internally debating whether or not this was a massive mistake. Maybe that whole breakdown was an act to tempt her out. She looked Dib up and down. “Just tell me your name? Why you’re here? The real reason, because I don’t buy you only came to see if I was real. That wouldn’t justify the reaction you had earlier.”

He started at the blunt nature of her questioning; this wasn’t how this was supposed to go! But he didn’t have any other options, she’d probably only agree to be documented if he cooperated. The last thing he wanted was to delve into his issues in front of this, again, complete stranger but the lingering frustration of the last few months refused to leave. So, he took a deep breath, and began with where most of his troubles started: Zim. But he couldn’t stop there, his speech spiraled out into all of his baggage. He recalled each time his peers laughed in his face and mocked his proof, how much Gaz ignored him, how his dad never once believed in him. He poured his heart out for the first time in his life.

_Those who wanted a deal came at a critical crossroads, they needed to think she could perform miracles and she needed to be desperate enough to leave. She could only take the monotony for so long and it seemed like no matter how hard she tried people just kept coming. The first guy thought she was a demon of some sort. A religious fellow in the wrong ways. He wanted power and fame, so she agreed because he clearly didn’t know anything. One stint on the local news later and she found herself back in the house. Turns out that making a deal as a ghost put far more power in the hands of the possessed than she suspected. Thus, he sent her back because “She lied to him”. This cycle continued every few years or so and she’d gotten tired of this. If having to put up with narcissistic idiots meant she could leave for a couple of months at most she’d stay there and rot. If she could rot._

By the end of his rant, Dib felt like he’d just run a marathon. His eyes stung from the tears that ran down his face, throat raw from the anger and pent up feelings he’d kept inside for far too long. In a twisted way, he felt relieved. He realized this was the first time someone let him vent without once interrupting him. She’d sat through every failed hunt and encounter with Zim, each argument with his father, miserable day at skool, she just listened. Maybe she would agree to at least one picture. He chuckled humorlessly to himself, “God, maybe I am insane.”

Said ghost on the other hand was having a crisis. Her heart ached every time he described the way his peers ridiculed him, and his family either ignored or belittled his interests. He felt truly alone. Why else would he willingly spill all of this to her, a specter haunting a dilapidated house with no prompting. She reached out hesitantly towards Dib.

“I had no idea kid. God that sounds… Awful.” She wracked her brain for a solution, she couldn’t exactly give him a hug.

Dib blinked up at her. “You believe me?”

She laughed, “Dib it’s hard for me not to believe in the supernatural. If I can exist, I don’t see why aliens aren’t real”

He blushed, feeling more than a little ridiculous. He was still adjusting to the absurdity of this whole situation.

The ghost looked deep in thought for a moment, contemplating her next move. She’d already thrown out her original plan of ignoring this kid and look where that’d gotten her. She knew that getting invested would be a bad idea and yet here she was. But no one else in Dib’s life was giving him the time of day and someone had to step up.

“Look, Dib, I’ll be frank with you. You know about me, what I’ve done. Those deals you probably heard about? An excuse to get me out of this crumbling house. They all wanted petty things: money, power, the like. I can see that you aren’t like them. I want to help you. You seem capable of so much more.”

“Wha-“

“Just hear me out, please. I can’t promise that I can fix everything, but I see so much potential in you. I think together, we might make both our lives better. I’ll finally get out of here, and you’ll finally have the respect you’ve wanted.” She held out her hand.

Dib’s natural paranoia reared its ugly head, reminding him of every time he’d been stabbed in the back by someone claiming they’d help him. But those people had hidden their true nature, this ghost lady (he’d call her something else later) never hid what she was or what she wanted. She listened; she was honest. He knew what he had to do.

“I accept”

As Dib shook the ghost’s hand, he felt lighter. He finally had someone who wanted to help him, who could see the truth. Sure, that someone was a ghost with no name, but you’ve got to start somewhere. He could work with this. 

She smiled at Dib. She didn’t have much power as a ghost, and she’d spent the better part of the last decade doing nothing but play with others for her own amusement. This would be different, she could make an actual difference in his life, use the tools he already possessed and maybe, just maybe, find some answers of her own.

“I think this will work out just fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly all I'm good at is hurting these children and attempting to comfort them. Ah well. The next part should be pretty lighthearted. Thanks again to my wonderful counterpart Lazyweekends for all the help! <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I feel like all I'm good at is hurting the Membrane family. Anyways, enjoy!


End file.
